Art and all that stuff

Monday, 4 November 2013

A scary tale...

In more ways than one.

Last night around 10 pm there was such a crash and a bang. Elizabeth jumped off the settee with fright! "There is someone banging on the back window" she yelled " YOU have to go out and check!!" Being 'the man' I opened the door and shouted "Allo". There was, of course, no response.

I thought the banging had come from upstairs so I tootled off to check and found the culprit. Meanwhile Elizabeth was still shaking, looking through the kitchen window and retorting "There is someone looking at me!" "No there is not," I said, "it was just this block of wood which had fallen off our wardrobe and bounced on the floor."

The offending strip of wood

This had happened because it was only held on with a piece of double sided tape and I had hung a shirt, on a hanger, on it. It has happened before; good German furniture I blame it on!

So, in order to avoid the problem again, today I would screw the wood strip in place. I removed it, drilled two holes in it and found two suitable screws. The first one was screwed in with no problems, however the second one, due to its proximity to the ceiling, needed a chubby screwdriver!!!

No problem...

Ohhh think again Colin. Over the years a man accumulates screwdrivers...

In various shapes and sizes... Including 'Chubby ones'

Fortunately I have six, unfortunately they are all flat headed and I wanted Phillips headed... (Invented by Henry F Phillips a US businessman). As a note; The wooden handled one on the left could be coming up to its 100th birthday. It was my grandfathers; William Young who died in 1961 aged 71.

I am sure I used to own a chubby Phillips but it was nowhere to be found!!!

All was not lost though, a further search found this 'tool'

I have no idea where it came from but it easily completed the job. It looks like something IKEA would provide only it is too good quality for that.

6 comments:

I like the t-bar chubby... now tempted to drill some holes through some of my stronger ones...just the ticket for that extra torque!!I think I might have more screwdrivers than you... [in total]...but not one 100 years old...that is in my brother's kitchen tool drawer... [which used to be my Mum's tool drawer]...it used to belong to my Grandfather.And certainly not one with a t-bar... the number of times I could have used one of those!!

Several of those screwdrivers Tim claims are mine... I once startled a physical chemistry lecturer and my classmates (mostly male) by producing at need a screwdriver from my pencil case. A flathead, but it did the job.

Sad thing is, these days, 90% of the screwing we do is done mechanically... But it is good to have an old fashioned one occasionally and without a suitable tool its difficult. A man can never have too many tools!

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After six years living in rural France we felt it was the right time for us to return to northwest England and begin a new chapter in our life together.
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